About

Beginnings of BoneGames

Over the past several years our group of friends has played many, many games. We found games we liked, and those we hated. The more we played the better feel we got for what worked and what didn’t. Eventually, like many gamers, we started making changes to the games we played, making them “better”. After trying to fix game after game, we realized that we would only be satisfied by building our own games. We had no idea what we were in for.

BoneGames was the brain-child of Joshua Howard, with significant contributions being made by Bruce Biskup. Our first game released was Barons of Fyn v. 1.0 in 1994 via the Internet. Since then we have released several more titles and have more games in beta.

It is our goal to bring simple but playable boardgames to the gaming public via Internet. Because of the diverse interests of our contributions and friends we are able to offer a wide selection of game styles. Of our five released games two are abstract strategy games, one is a multiplayer card game and the last two are hex based war games. We are always on the lookout for new ideas. Comments and criticisms about our games are especially appreciated so please feel free to contact BoneGames at the email address listed below.

About our Free Distribution System

BoneGames distributes some of its games under the concept of “freeware”. All ownership and copyright belongs to the original authors, but the games themselves are made freely available. See the Legal Notice for details.

BoneGames will support our commercial games by releasing free expansions, as PDF files. These expansions will require the main game to be useful, but can be downloaded by anyone. The first such free expansion is Admiral On Deck, released in March 2001, a free expansion to Queen Victoria’s Navy.

BoneGames free games are currently distributed in PDF format. This format allows us to maintain a very high quality production, while still being accessible to large numbers of people.

If you would like to see BoneGames support any other formats, drop us a line and tell us why.

Commercial Games: Why?

Starting in early 2000 BoneGames started distributing its first commercial game, Queen Victoria’s Navy.

We at BoneGames believe the best way to continue to bring out the games we wanted was to make some of them available as commercial products. We will continue to freely distribute our other games, and plan to continue releasing games in the future that will also be freely distributed.

Queen Victoria’s Navy is the first of our games to be released as a commercial product, but may not be the last.

Contacting BoneGames

We encourage you to get in touch with us. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. we would love to hear them.

Send general comments to info-at-bonegames.com.

About the Founders

Joshua Howard

Joshua Howard currently lives and works in the Los Angeles area, helping teams ship great stuff for Riot Games. Joshua has been gaming in one form or another for over 30 years and has always been a fan of rules, rule systems, and game design.

Bruce Biskup

Bruce Biskup currently calls Everett, Washington home, where he is an engineer at Boeing. Bruce is interested in historical conflict simulation. He has a Masters of Science in Engineering from Texas A&M University, where he never walked on the grass and was never in the Corps.

Legal Notice

By playing or distributing any BoneGames game you are agreeing to the following:

The Barons of Fyn, in its entirety, is copyright 1994 by Joshua Howard. The Way and Bones, in their entirety, are copyright 1994, 1995 by Joshua Howard. Sovereign Seas Lite, LNL, and Tiles, in their entirety, are copyright 1994, 1995 by Joshua Howard and Bruce Biskup. Queen Victoria’s Navy, in its entirety, is copyright 1996–2000 by Joshua Howard and Bruce Biskup. Admiral On Deck, in its entirety, is copyright 2001 by Joshua Howard and Bruce Biskup. The logo of BoneGames is copyright 1994 by Joshua Howard. No modifications may be made to any part of any of these games. These games, in any form, may not be sold in any way, either directly or through its distribution. The only exception is the normal costs involved with on-line computer access. These games, in their entirety, may be copied for personal use and distribution, as long as no financial gain results from that distribution. Contact BoneGames, at the email address below, for licensing information.

Participation in any beta, or play testing, in no way grants any rights of any kind to the beta or play test participant.